


Hanukkah and Hope

by Starstruck4Moony



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, COVID 19, Chef Black, Coronavirus, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Dinner, Fluff, Food, Hanukkah, Holiday Fic Exchange, Husbands, Jewish Character, Jewish Remus Lupin, LGBTQ Jewish Character(s), Living Together, M/M, Modern, Professor Remus Lupin, Quarantine, Sephardic Jews, Slice of Life, Teacher Remus Lupin, Zoom - Freeform, copious descriptions of cooking food, links to recipes, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27985569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starstruck4Moony/pseuds/Starstruck4Moony
Summary: Sirius has been laid off, Remus is teaching classes remotely, and together they're trying to get through quarantine safely. Even though they can't travel home for the holidays, Sirius comes up with a way to surprise Remus with a Hanukkah celebration
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 30
Kudos: 114





	Hanukkah and Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * For [swottypotter (miraxb)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/miraxb/gifts).



> Hannukah Sameach Miri! Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to teach me about all the amazing Sephardic Jewish Cuisine. My heart is soaring, my mouth is watering, and hopefully this little holiday gift fic does your dinners justice. 
> 
> Written for @remus-john-lupin's WOLFSTAR HOLIDAY 2020 PROMPTS Day 10: Menorah Candles 
> 
> Fun fact! A Menorah used at Hannukah is called a Hanukkiah! 
> 
> **Full disclosure: I am not Jewish, but my friend is a Sephardic Jew and helped me with this fic. Also, all of the recipes are real and linked in the end notes.**

“Remus!” Sirius called through their flat while making tea in the kitchen, “It’s 7:50!” 

He heard a crash, a curse, and then Remus emerged from their bedroom, still pulling up his pants, belt inside out. Sirius laughed and met him halfway across the living room, giving him a quick kiss, while fixing his belt.

“I hate mornings,” he whined, letting Sirius finish his belt for him. 

“I know, but I packed you a lunch, and put some chocolate in your coffee, and there’s a smoothie in the cup with the straw ‘cause I know you’ll get hungry before lunchtime.”

Remus smiled at him, wrapping his arms around Sirius’s neck to pull him down for a kiss. They’d been living together for a few years now, and married for a few more, and Sirius thought that his life couldn’t get any better. 

“I’ll see you after school, and maybe we can have a date night in?” Remus asked, with a twinkle in his eye, still pressed up against Sirius. It had become their inside joke after the quarantine had started, and it always made Sirius smile. 

“Of course,” he kissed his head of curls. “Now go whip those brats into shape,” he said, with a slap on Remus’s ass. 

A few minutes and a few kisses later, Remus was out the door and down the stairs to his studio. For a few years now, they had lived in the walkup that Alphard had left for him. Once quarantine started, and the restaurant Sirius was working at closed, and Remus needed a quiet place to zoom into all of the now-virtual classes he taught, they turned the small first floor into a studio for Remus. It was quiet, secluded, and away from all of Sirius’s banging around in the kitchen while he experimented with new dishes for his instagram. 

Now that he was gone, though, it was time for Project Secret Hanukkah, so Sirius called up Hope.

“Sirius dear, how are you?” She answered with a voice that was both happy and relaxed. It made Sirius homesick for Hope but it would still be months before they could safely travel to be with her. 

“Better now that I know you’ll be able to help me today.”

“Oh, I’m sure you'll be fine. You’re a very talented chef.”

“But I don’t have that Hope magic,” he countered, and it was true. 

For Sirius, Hope’s food has always been sacred. It was something she made from the heart, and therefore he had felt that even attempting to make any of HER dishes without her present to instruct him, was sacrilegious. He’d always wanted to stand by her side as she cooked, but usually Remus didn’t get off for Hanukkah, so they’d make their way to the countryside on Saturday and all the food for the weekend would have already been prepared. This year though, he’d have to brave the recipes himself and trust that a phone call or three from Hope herself would help him make the meal as enjoyable as possible.

“Well, where are you at in your preparations?” She asked, and Sirius admired the way she switched into teacher mode, just like her son. They discussed the dishes he was making, and she had already approved all the ingredients and the kosher red wine he picked from their previous call earlier in the week. 

“Ok, for the keftes de prasa, the recipe you emailed just says “fry” the leak fritters, but do you suggest a lower heat giving them room to expand or something hotter so they turn golden faster?” 

“You’re using schmaltz you said?”

“Oh, yeah, this goyim is going all out.” It was one of the maybe three words he knew in Yiddish and it always made her laugh when he tried to use them. 

“Ok, well that’ll certainly give them a nice color, but I usually keep my dial set a bit below medium since you don’t want them to turn dark too quickly.” He added the note and continued down through the short list of questions he had. He knew she was making dinner as well and didn’t want to take up her entire morning, so they hung up after scheduling a time to video chat over dinner later. 

He started with the bimuelos and the challah, knowing that they’d both need to rise and that he could prepare the rest of the meal while the dough was rising. He quickly toasted the caraway seeds and then mixed together the challah dough, rich and yellow from the eggs and honey, before turning it out onto his countertop. No matter how practiced he was at kneading bread, and he was certainly better than Paul Hollywood, who liked to break the gluten strands by overstretching and beating them, he never got used to the feeling of flour on his hands. It was like fingernails on a chalkboard to him, giving him slight shivers each time he started to knead the dough until it became that beautiful, elastic ball of glutinous wonder. 

Once he was satisfied, he set it aside to rise and went through the same motions with the bimuelo dough, this time adding in the zest and fresh juice of some blood oranges he’d happened upon at the market. Blood oranges definitely weren’t in Hope’s recipe, but Sirius just couldn’t help himself, seeing their dark skins, and knowing that the fragrant aroma would add a bit of something special to the evening’s dinner. 

Once both of the doughs were done, he checked the clock and was surprised to see it was nearing 11:30, and therefore Remus’s lunchtime. Sirius had packed him a lunch, but Remus still usually came upstairs to eat with him, and that just wouldn’t do today, since there was no way he’d be able to lie when Remus asked him what he’d been cooking. He was too excited and was always pants at lying. Remus always said that he smiled when he lied, like he was having a good joke. Sirius smiled at the memory of being called out — regularly — and the feeling of being known and loved. It was something he had never been sure he would get with someone, especially someone as fun and kind and loving as Remus, and yet here he was. All the more reason to make sure the afternoon went off perfectly for his perfect guy.

Sirius rang up James, knowing exactly how to keep Moony from coming up for lunch. He called up James, who picked up on the second ring. 

“Padfoot! How are you!” 

Sirius grinned into the phone. “I’m good, Prongs. Yourself?”

“I miss you SO MUCH, oh my god, I need to see you AND Moony again soon or I’m gonna die.”

Sirius laughed at his poor extroverted friend, taking quarantine the hardest out of all of them, and then heard a shout of glee from Harry in the distant background. 

“Well, I was wondering if you could help me out with Hanukkah stuff today.”

“What, do you think I have magic brown guy powers? I'm Hindu, not Jewish.”

Sirius barked a laugh, “Wait, really? After ten years of friendship, I had no idea!”

“It’s been eleven, you idiot.”

“Ah, I feel so missed; so loved,” Sirius replied sarcastically, happy to hear James laugh from the other end of the phone. 

“Okay okay, so how can I help?”

“Mind asking him to do a video call with Harry? I’m sure he misses Remus as much as Remus misses him. I just need you to keep him distracted during his lunch break, which should be starting in a bit.” 

“We can do it, can’t we Harry?” 

Sirius heard some shouts of delight from Harry at hearing his name, so Sirius assumed that was a _yes_. 

“Thank you, Prongs! And we’ll get together as soon as it’s safe. Maybe you can even come over for a weekend and get in as much time as possible, yeah?”

James groaned in a way that Sirius knew was a desperate longing for his friends. “Yes, god, that sounds perfect. You cook and I’ll bring the baby and the booze.” 

“Can’t wait, James. Talk to you later okay?” 

“BYE, PADFOOT! LOVE YOU!” James shouted into the receiver. 

“Ow! And bye, love you too.” With that, Sirius hung up before James could derail them and miss the window of opportunity before Remus would head upstairs again for lunch. 

With Moony helpfully distracted, Sirius turned back to his recipes. 

He decided to go ahead and prepare the leek fritters so they'd be ready for frying as soon as the rest of the meal was ready. He put on some music and fell back into his cooking groove, boiling the potatoes, simmering the leeks, mixing everything with spices, eggs, and matzo, and then getting his hands wonderfully messy forming the fritters. This was one of the best dishes he remembered from his first Hanukkah with the Lupins. He’d had vague ideas about what would be served, assuming latkes and chicken, but when they showed up at Hope’s dinner table, Sirius found that he couldn’t name a single dish on the table. The mystery was as appealing as the smell, and the Lupins spent that Hanukkah graciously educating Sirius about dishes, as well as their own Sephardic origins. 

Now Sirius knew the difference between the Ashkenazi Jews, primarily from eastern Europe, whose foods were popular in western culture, and the Sephardi Jews who were from north Africa, Southern Europe, and the Middle East. Their food was wildly different in that it was filled with spices, oranges, fragrant stews, and a plethora of dishes that Sirius was eager to learn about. His fascination with food started the first time that he ate over at the Potter’s, with all of their amazing Indian food, and Sirius felt that same inspiration hit when he first ate Hope’s cooking. His love affair with food was now cemented as a lifelong love, and he silently wished for the same with Remus and his beautiful family. 

A timer went off, bringing Sirius out of his daydreams. He set the fritters in the fridge so they could set up for easy handling later and got back to work on the challah. He set it aside for the second rise, and checked the oven temp, making sure it’d be ready for the bread soon. 

Everything out of the way, he set to chopping all of his ingredients for the lamb stew. The holiday was celebrated with lots of fried foods to commemorate the story of Hanukkah, but Sirius felt like two fried dough dishes were probably enough for the two of them…at least for tonight. He started by toasting the almond slivers in oil, and then added in the onions, garlic, ginger, stirring until they were golden, and then adding in a myriad of spices and cubed lamb. As soon as the saffron and spices started to get warm in the oil, he knew he had gotten it right. The coriander mixed with the ginger and Ras el Hanout, a special spice blend he’d gotten at the Middle Eastern grocer, completely changed the atmosphere, and transported him back to the countryside, sitting at Hope’s worn wooden table. He couldn’t wait for Remus to get back so they could eat, but the stew needed to simmer in the tagine for a while longer. He’d eventually add in apricots and dates, and then he still needed to get back to the challah and prepare the bimuelos, as well as the couscous to go with the stew. 

___

It was three-thirty, which meant classes were over, and Remus would be upstairs as soon as he finished his preparations for the next day. Sirius ran a finger down his list. The wine was breathing, the food was all on the table, the computer was sat at the head of the table so that they could Zoom in Hope and Lyall, and the Hanukkah menorah was set up with a lighter nearby. He had found the hanukkiah among Remus’s boxes in the attic a week ago when he had gotten the idea to host their own Hanukkah and had managed to give it a decent polish.

He was just calling Hope on Zoom when he heard the door open behind him. He turned around, a bit sheepish with nerves, hoping that Remus would like, or at least recognize, what he had done. When Remus finally came around the corner, and his eyes hit the table, Sirius standing there with a small smile on his face, he was silent. Sirius lost his smile and made his way over, kissing Remus on the cheek, and taking his bag. 

“I uh, I hope this is okay, baby?” 

Remus finally looked at him and when their eyes met, a massive smile broke out over Remus’s face. 

“I…I forgot, and you still…” His words had left him, which Sirius knew was the highest compliment one could get from Remus. 

“Well, I know it’s awful you can’t go home this year, or get work off, so I thought, well, it’s the least I could do.” He deposited the bag on the hook and wrapped an arm around Remus to lead him to the table. 

“I could smell food, you know? And then, when I opened the door, I swear, I swear I thought I was home.” Remus turned in Sirius’s arms and wrapped his hands behind his neck, pulling him down for a passionate kiss. Their mouths moved together, enjoying their reunion until a coughing sound interrupted them and Sirius remembered what he was doing before Remus entered. 

“Oh, sorry Hope,” Sirius said to the computer screen, and then had the joy of watching Remus blush before turning around. 

“Mum?” His voice was a bit high with emotion and Sirius moved away to pour them each some wine. 

“Hi mi korason, Hanukkah Sameach” 

“Oh my god, Hanukkah Sameach, Mom! Is dad there, too?” 

“Hi, son!” Lyall leaned his head in, almost knocking over the hanukkiah in front of Hope and making Remus chuckle. 

“So, this okay? You up for a Hanukkah with the family?” Sirius asked, pulling out Remus’s chair for him to sit down in, and then seating himself. 

“Yeah, wow, I mean, of course it’s okay? Who the hell are you and what have you done with the boy that thought Hanukkah was matzo-ball soup.”

All the Lupin’s laughed then and Sirius smiled in good cheer. It felt good to be with them, to have a history with them, and shared stories. He settled in and listened as Hope recited the prayers. Together, Hope and Remus each lit a candle on their Hanukkah menorahs and sang soft songs they all knew. One year, Sirius would learn the songs, and once a year he’d learn more dishes, and hopefully one year soon, they could all be together again. 

After the ceremony was complete, they dug into the food, and Sirius beamed with pride as Remus groaned with delight at the foods and boasted about how good they were to Lyall and Hope. 

“Sirius,” Remus said through a mouth half-full of food, “what did you put in the bimuelos? They’re so good but they’re…different?” 

“Oh,” Sirius smiled, proud that Remus was able to pick up on such a small change, “I know it’s not exactly the same as Hope’s,” he nodded to her, “but they had blood oranges at the market so I had to get them. They’re a bit sweeter than the navel oranges.” 

“Oh, Sirius,” Hope cooed from the laptop, “that’s a wonderful idea! I’ll have to try yours sometime.”

The entire dinner went like that, everyone eating the fragrant food, rich with spice and warm from the fryer, oven, or stove, and Sirius basking in his new family. Even if they couldn’t all be together, they found they could still share a meal, make a memory, and take time to spend with each other. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this fic! Make sure to wish your Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah!
> 
> Recipes used in this fic are linked below because they looked SO GOOD:
> 
> [Leek Fritters/Keftes de Prassa ](https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/gil-marks-keftes-de-prassa-sephardic-leek-patties/)
> 
> [Bimuelos with Honey-Orange Drizzle](https://www.myjewishlearning.com/recipe/bimuelos-with-honey-orange-drizzle/)
> 
> [Lamb Tagine with Dates and Apricots](https://keviniscooking.com/lamb-tagine-dates-apricots-honey/)
> 
> [Ras ed Hanout Spice](https://keviniscooking.com/ras-el-hanout-spice-blend/)
> 
> [Couscous](https://www.themediterraneandish.com/how-to-cook-couscous/)
> 
> [Sephardic Challah](https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/jessamyns-sephardic-challah)


End file.
